ther Republicans nor reconstructionists at
heart, but public plunderers.

In 1871 the carpet-bag government began to totter. The governor left the
State, and staid away so long that the State treasurer, a man of stern
integrity, refused to pay warrants that were not signed by a resident
governor. Finally the governor returned, but almost immediately
resigned. In a short time the real representatives of the people took
charge of affairs, and since that time the State has been in a highly
prosperous condition.

"THE NEW SOUTH"

When the people of Georgia had once more gained control of their State
government, the political tempest that had been raging slowly quieted
down. A pot that has been boiling furiously doesn't grow cool in a
moment, but it ceases almost instantly to boil; and though it may cool
slowly, it cools surely. There was not an end of prejudice and unreason
the moment the people had disposed of those who were plundering them,
but prejudice began to lose its force as soon as men had the opportunity
to engage in calm discussion, and to look forward hopefully to the
future. In the midst of bayonet and carpet-bag rule, the State could
not make any real progress. It is only during a time of peace and
contentment that the industrial forces of a community begin to display
their real energy.

No State in the South had suffered so severely as Georgia during the
war. She placed in the field more than a hundred and twenty thousand
soldiers,--twenty thousand more than her voting population at the
beginning of the war. The taxable wealth of the State in 1867 was more
than four hundred and eighty-one millions less than it was in 1861,--a
loss of more than three fourths. After the reconstruction period,
all the State had to show, in return for the treasure that had been
squandered by the carpet-bag politicians, was a few poorly equipped
railroads that had been built on the State's credit. In some instances
railroad bonds were indorsed when there was no road to show for them;
in others, bonds were issued in behalf of the same road under different
names; so that the people lost by fraud as much or more than the amount
of improvement that had been made. The "developers" who had connected
themselves with the bayonet administration were much more interested in
"developing" their own private interests than they were in developing
the resources of the State.

But when the bayonet administration had been driven out, n